


Head Over Heels

by Aeriel



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Family, Gen, Humor, Spells & Enchantments
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-17
Updated: 2014-07-17
Packaged: 2018-02-09 05:28:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1970691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeriel/pseuds/Aeriel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Hey, what if I came up with a hex that kept the two of you from falling?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Head Over Heels

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Measured](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Measured/gifts).



If someone (a theoretical nosy someone who was weirdly invested in Henry's personal life) had asked Henry whether he was interested in having children or not, he would have, rather reasonably, assumed they were talking about babies. "Oh, human kids!" he might have said. "Sure, they're cute! Love 'em!"  
  
He certainly wouldn't have imagined that, mere weeks after his semi-spontaneous marriage to Sumia, a fully grown pig-tailed girl would march up to him and announce, "Ta-da! I'm your daughter!"  
  
Henry believed her immediately, of course-- who the heck would want to pretend to be his kid?  
  
Okay, so the whole obsession with dramatics and heroics was a little surprising, but he decided he could live with it. If Henry's own childhood had taught him anything, it was that you didn't have to be exactly like somebody to love them like crazy. And that death was permanent, but that was another story.  
  
And Cynthia definitely loved him like crazy. He enjoyed her enthusiasm, even if it was a little exhausting sometimes (to say nothing of the flower petals).  
  
Sumia, on the other hand, had started to become anxious. "She gets so caught up in these entrances. Sometimes she charges right in without looking for archers!"  
  
"I'll make anyone with a bow who gets within range explode," Henry promised his wife.  
  
"And she hasn't been looking after her pegasus at all! It makes my heart hurt to look at her, covered in mud and sweat and still faithfully following Cynthia around. I almost want to tend to her myself."  
  
"If you do that, she'll never learn," he pointed out. "Why don't you tell her? She gets pretty easily distracted- I bet she's not doing it on purpose."  
  
Sumia sighed, leaning against him. "I know. She reminds me of myself when I was younger. It's just that I was never on a battlefield in those days."  
  
Henry was going to reply that their daughter had managed to survive a pretty scary sounding future, so she'd probably be all right, but Cynthia chose that moment to burst in waving a tome over her head and promptly fall flat on her face. The tome landed on her head.  
  
"Owww," Cynthia moaned, crawling to her feet.  
  
Sumia immediately knelt on the floor, taking their daughter's head in her hands. "Are you all right? What were you doing with that tome? That looked heavy!"  
  
"I'll be fine," she insisted. "I'm a Dark Flier now, I can take it!"  
  
Henry picked up the tome and dusted it off. "Hey, this is a Bolganone! You can't use this yet. Can I have it?"  
  
"Oh, pegasus poop!" Cynthia exclaimed. "I thought it was Fire! Now I have to go back to Robin. But you can keep it if you want. I guess I was so happy to be promoted like my mother that I wasn't really paying attention."  
  
"Actually, Robin almost reclassed me," Sumia admitted. "But she thought I might stumble at a crucial moment so we decided it was better if I stayed in the air."  
  
That sparked something in Henry's mind. It wasn't that he actually thought his wife and daughter were in any particular danger from periodic pitfalls (well, maybe Cynthia-- she seemed to fall less often and with more force) but he did enjoy a challenge, and figured it might make them both happier.  
  
"Hey, what if I came up with a hex that kept the two of you from falling?"  
  
Sumia frowned. "And what else would it do?" It seemed the whole body switching spell had made her a little suspicious when it came to Henry's bright ideas. Not like that hadn't worked out in the end, but, as she had explained later, she was mostly angry about him casting it without warning her in advance.  
  
"That would be amazing!" Cynthia said enthusiastically. "Like, keep me from falling ever? Then I could leap off my pegasus dramatically and land on my feet instead of my face!"  
  
"Well, I haven't figured out all the details yet," Henry said modestly. "But it could be useful, right? So you wouldn't trip and break any more bowls or spill most of the dinner on the ground."  
  
"I walk very slowly in the kitchen now," Sumia said, blushing.  
  
"You should totally do it! I want to be Cynthia the Invincible!" Cynthia declared.  
  
Sumia didn't have the heart to tell her daughter no, and later, when they were alone, admitted that "if you manage to make it work" it might solve some problems.  
  
So Henry dug into the relevant literature with gusto, occasionally asking Tharja for her opinions (which always started with "Go away" but gave way to "Fine, but only if you help me with this spell for Robin") and doing a few tests on squirrels, which was difficult because squirrels didn't usually fall so he also had to put a tripping hex on them and then he wasn't sure if the not tripping hex was actually working or if he was canceling out the tripping hex.  
  
So then he asked Tharja to let him test the hex out on her. She finally agreed under the condition Henry would tell everyone she had bested him with her magic and never reveal she had allowed herself to be used as a test subject.  
  
Once this had been arranged, it only took Henry a few days to work out the kinks and get the spell ready for his family.  
  
("Thank darkness," Tharja grumbled, brushing off her clothes. "I haven't been this intimately acquainted with dirt since I caught those snakes. I hope your precious wife and child are happy.")  
  
And his precious wife and child were very happy, at first. Cynthia was able to do all sorts of leaps and jumps and every time her body started to fall forward, she was jerked upright by the hex. Sumia went about as usual but with a huge smile on her face because her body kept righting itself whenever she began to trip over something.  
  
But then Sumia was carrying a freshly baked pie, and, not seeing the stool in front of her, stumbled, the pie flying out of her hands. Her body righted itself, but the pie did not.  
  
(Gaius mourned it)  
  
And then Cynthia, getting ready for bed, pulled off her boots and flung herself at her cot. Just as her head was about to hit her lumpy pillow, Cynthia was jerked upright.  
  
Problems began to multiply. Sumia dove underwater in a hot spring to retrieve the soap that had slipped out of her hands, and was pulled back before she could grasp it. Cynthia started to do a cartwheel as part of a victory routine only to be dragged back onto her heels.  
  
And then the hex started getting stronger. Neither of them could pick things up off the floor, and it was getting difficult to sit on the ground.  
  
When Sumia tried to climb into bed and found herself yanked to her feet by the hex she decided it was the last straw.  
  
"Henry, my love," she said, trying to rein in her frustration. "I think it's about time you undo this spell."  
  
"You'd probably get used to sleeping upright," Henry said brightly. "Animals do it all the time! Nya ha ha ha! But if you don't feel like trying it I'll take it off."  
  
"I definitely don't! Take it off, now!"  
  
Henry muttered to himself, then looked up. "Okay, it's off! I'd miss having you next to me, anyway."  
  
"Oh, Henry," Sumia said fondly, leaning in for a kiss.  
  
The hex remained on Cynthia, at least until the next morning. Evidently she had decided that sleeping standing up might be a useful ability for a hero, but every time she was about to drift off, she tilted forward and was jerked backwards harshly enough to wake her up. As a result, she was swaying back and forth when Henry found her.  
  
"To victoryyyyyy," Cynthia slurred, raising a hand in greeting.  
  
"You're not going into battle like that!" Henry exclaimed. He undid the hex rapidly, just in time to catch his daughter as she slumped into his arms, snoring loudly.  
  
"I'm going to remember that one," Tharja observed. "It would make a fabulous curse for Robin's enemies."  
  
"It was a wonderful thought," Sumia said consolingly, petting Cynthia's hair after they had tucked her into bed. "I mean it. But we're probably better off not trying to solve all our problems with dark magic."  
  
"Oh, sure, not all our problems. But there are definitely some problems it can solve," Henry assured her. "Or at least make you feel a little less murderous."  
  
Sumia probably should have been a little alarmed by that last bit, but Henry's offhand references to death and disaster were beginning to feel oddly comforting. "If you say so. I'll go see what's for breakfast."  
  
It was really a shame that she didn't see that lance lying across the ground, but at least things were back to normal.  



End file.
